THE BIBLICAL FATE OF THE UNREPENTANT AFTER DEATH

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A Case for Annihilationism / Conditional Immortality

  1. THE EARLY CHURCH: WHAT THE FIRST FIVE CENTURIES TAUGHT

Six major theological schools existed in the first five centuries:

• Alexandria – taught apocatastasis (ultimate restoration)
• Antioch – taught apocatastasis
• Caesarea – taught apocatastasis
• Edessa/Nisibis – taught apocatastasis
• Ephesus – taught annihilationism (eventual destruction)
• Rome/Carthage – taught eternal conscious torment

Important note:

• The majority view among the early church theological centres was that God’s judgments are ultimately restorative (apocatastasis) or that the wicked ultimately perish (annihilationism). • Only Rome/Carthage—later shaping Western theology through Tertullian, Augustine, and others—consistently taught eternal conscious torment. • Augustine himself appears to have initially leaned toward universal restoration before adopting the eternal torment view.

Thus, the idea that hell consists of everlasting conscious torment was not the universal or majority teaching of the early church.

  • THE SCRIPTURAL WITNESS: THE WICKED PERISH, DIE, AND ARE DESTROYED

Scripture repeatedly uses the language of literal death and destruction—not infinite torment.

Below are key passages grouped by theme.

2A. The wages of sin is death, not endless life in torment

• Romans 6:23
The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus.

Paul sets up a contrast:
– Sin → death
– Christ → eternal life

If the wicked instead live eternally in torment, they would also have eternal life (just in misery). That contradicts Paul’s contrast.

2B. Destruction, not perpetual suffering

• Matthew 7:13
Broad is the road that leads to destruction.

• 1 Corinthians 1:18
The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing.

• Philippians 3:18–19
Their end is destruction.

• Galatians 6:8
Whoever sows to the flesh will reap corruption (Greek: phthora, decay, ruin).

• Hebrews 10:39
We are not of those who shrink back to destruction.

The consistent imagery is final loss of life—not everlasting torment.

2C. Death is the final result of sin

• James 1:14–15
Sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.

• Acts 3:23
Every soul who does not listen to that prophet shall be destroyed.

• Romans 8:13
If you live according to the flesh you will die.

• Proverbs 11:19
Evil leads to death.

• Proverbs 14:12 / 16:25
Its end is the way of death.

In Scripture, death consistently means the cessation of life—not eternal life in torment.

2D. Jesus Himself contrasts perishing with eternal life

• John 3:16
Whoever believes will not perish but have eternal life.

“Perish” does not mean “live forever in misery.” It means cease to live.

• Matthew 10:28
God can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.

This is one of Jesus’ clearest statements. What God destroys does not continue endlessly.

2E. Historical examples of God’s judgment as destruction

• 2 Peter 2:6
God made Sodom and Gomorrah an example of what is coming to the ungodly by reducing them to ashes.

Ashes symbolize completed destruction—not ongoing suffering.

  • THE “SECOND DEATH” (THANATOS) IS STILL DEATH

The Greek word for “death” used in Revelation is thanatos—the same word used everywhere else for literal death.

Revelation uses the term “second death” four times:

• Revelation 2:11
• Revelation 20:6
• Revelation 20:14
• Revelation 21:8

If “death” everywhere else means cessation of life, the plain reading indicates that the “second death” is the final, irreversible destruction of the person.

Jesus uses the same word:

• John 8:51
He will never see death (thanatos).

Thus, the second death is a real death, not an eternal conscious experience.

  • THE LOGIC OF IMMORTALITY IN SCRIPTURE
    God alone possesses immortality

• 1 Timothy 6:15–16
God alone has immortality.

This means:

• Humans do not inherently have immortal souls.
• Eternal life is a gift granted only to the redeemed.
• The wicked are never promised immortality.

For eternal conscious torment to be true, God would have to grant everlasting life to the wicked—just to torment them forever. This conflicts with Scripture and with God’s character.

  • THE CHARACTER OF GOD: JUSTICE THAT IS REAL BUT FINITE

Scripture consistently emphasizes:

• God’s holiness requires that justice be done
• God’s judgments are righteous and appropriate
• God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked (Ezekiel 33:11)
• God’s wrath is real but not infinite in duration (Psalm 103:9)

God punishes sin, but:

• The penalty is death, not endless torment
• Justice is proportional, not infinite
• God’s heart is toward restoration, not torture

  • SUMMARY: THE BIBLICAL AND HISTORICAL CASE
  1. Most early church theological centres did not teach eternal conscious torment.
  2. Scripture overwhelmingly uses death, destruction, perishing, corruption, ruin—not eternal suffering.
  3. Jesus explicitly says God destroys souls in Gehenna.
  4. The “second death” uses the same Greek word for literal death, not eternal life in pain.
  5. God alone is immortal; the wicked are never promised immortality.
  6. A loving God does not sustain the eternal life of the wicked merely to endlessly torment them.
  7. Biblical justice is real, but its final form is death, not everlasting torture.

CONCLUSION

Across Scripture, early Christian theology, philosophy, and the character of God, the consistent picture is:

• Sin leads to death, not everlasting life in misery
• Only God has immortality; humans do not unless granted by Him
• Judgment is real but finite
• The wicked are destroyed, not sustained eternally
• Eternal life belongs only to the redeemed
• Eternal conscious torment was a minority position in the early centuries
• The majority position in both East and early theology was restoration or destruction

The annihilationist / conditional immortality view integrates all of Scripture without contradiction and aligns with the deepest themes of God’s justice, love, and ultimate victory.

WHY IT IS IMPORTANT TO DEAL WITH MILLIONS OF YEARS

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Some things should make Christians angry. In this powerful presentation, Ken Ham challenges believers to reclaim righteous anger, stand firm on the authority of Scripture, and boldly confront the lies of modern culture. Genesis 1 to 11 provides the foundation of the true history of this world and answers to the most troubling questions humans can raise, such as why there is death and suffering in the world.

God has raised up two ministries to cope with Satan’s most successful strategy (evolution), so make sure you connect with and support Answers in Genesis, http://www.answersingenesis.org and Creation Ministries International, http://www.creation.com.

ON FRENCH TV AIRWAVES ABORTION CANNOT BE PRESENTED AS A CAUSE OF DEATH

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Modern France traces its ideology back to the violent, anti-Christian French Revolution, when the Jacobins chose as their slogan “liberté, égalité, fraternité” (liberty, equality, and fraternity) — but not vérité (truth). The French government revealed its hostility to vérité recently when it fined a Christian program for saying that abortion causes death.

On February 25, 2024 broadcaster Aymeric Pourbaix of the CNews channel’s Roman Catholic program “En quête d’esprit” (“In search of the Spirit”) posted a slide with a stark and unwelcome truth: Abortion is “the leading cause of death in the world.” The infographic came as the nation of France stood poised to make abortion a constitutional right. The government promptly punished the conservative news outlet for speaking truth to power.

CNews announced on November 14th, 2024 that the government agency in charge of regulating broadcasting, ARCOM (Autorité de régulation de la communication audiovisuelle et numérique) meted out a fine of €100,000, or $104,000 U.S. for airing that segment. ARCOM also tried to shackle CNews or any other TV show from presenting the human toll of abortion, stating that, on TV airwaves, “abortion cannot be presented as a cause of death.” ARCOM further complained that this “manifest inaccuracy” was “not contradicted by the other people present on the set.”

“Around 73 million induced abortions take place worldwide each year,” according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Yet in an article posted in August titled “The top 10 causes of death,” WHO claims the “world’s biggest killer is ischemic heart disease … rising by 2.7 million to 9.1 million deaths in 2021.” The number two cause of death, the WHO claimed, was COVID-19.

The French government has kept rolling out fines for speaking truths not approved by the government. The modern-day Jacobins have no greater aversion to using force to crush truth than their murderous, secular ancestors. 

France will reap God’s judgement for this anti-God act. France like so many of the nations will be judged goat nations.

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world... Then he will say to those on his left, Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” Matthew 25:32-34, 45

WHEN DID SATAN REBEL AGAINST GOD?

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The Scripture Ezekiel 28:12-15 (below) indicates Satan was in the garden of Eden when He first sinned against God. The three major passages that deal with the fall of Satan: Genesis 3, Isaiah 14, and Ezekiel 28, in all three, Satan is in the Garden of Eden, and God pronounced the immediate judgment of being cast to the ground and the future consequence of his slander.

His rebellion was prompted by God giving sovereignty over the Cosmos to Adam. Satan became enraged by the notion that he, the great Angel, must be a servant to Adam, made of dust. So the root of jealousy and bitterness began festering within him.

Satan came to Adam and Eve as God’s chief steward, prime minister, and high priest who oversaw everything and was charged with protecting the sacred place they occupied. They had no reason to question his motives. They had known him since the day of their creation. Therefore, Satan could come to them in his unfallen, glorious state and they listened.

Adam and Eve were childlike in understanding the great cosmos, and their wisdom could not compare to Satan’s. Satan was charged with watching over the creatures made of dust, guiding and serving them in any way needed. This obviously brought out the worst in him.

Adam and Eve ejected from the Garden of Eden

Satan’s deadly, slanderous weapon was a simple question: “Has God indeed said? (Genesis 3: 1). This tiny question was an insidious, but subtle slander of God’s character. He was asking, can you really trust what God said? Next, he lied about the consequence of eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. “You will not surely die” (Genesis 3: 4), and then proceeded to truthfully tell the purpose of the tree: to be like God.

Satan subtly slandered God in the Garden of Eden because he did not want to serve anyone, but instead wanted all to serve him. He persuaded Adam and Eve to curse themselves. He used slander to incite Adam to eat the fruit God forbade, knowing Adam would “surely die” (Genesis 2: 17), and he would subsequently commit all his progeny to perpetual death (Romans 5: 12; 1 Corinthians 15: 21– 22). Adam’s transgression caused an imbalance, a debt, a legal lien upon the Earth which must be balanced or paid.

“You were the signet of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering, sardius, topaz, and diamond, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, emerald, and carbuncle; and crafted in gold were your settings and your engravings.
On the day that you were created they were prepared. You were an anointed guardian cherub. I placed you; you were on the holy mountain of God; in the midst of the stones of fire you walked. You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created, till unrighteousness was found in you.” Ezekiel 28:12-15

“How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground,
you who laid the nations low! You said in your heart, I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God
I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’” Isaiah 14:12-14

ARE YOU DEAD IN YOUR TRESPASSES AND SINS?

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If you could control the moment you died, what would your last words be? As Jesus hung on the cross, He spoke seven times. The first of His final words was a prayer. But not for Himself. 

“Father, forgive them, because they do not know what they are doing.” (Luke 23:34)

Really? They didn’t know what they were doing? 
1. The Jewish leaders plotted Jesus’ death for months. They paid Judas to betray Him. They held a mock trial in the middle of the night.
2. The crowd cried out for His crucifixion. They even chose a murderer to be set free rather than Jesus, the One who had healed the sick, raised the dead, and fed thousands.
3. Governor Pilate knew Jesus was only guilty of making the Jewish leaders mad. He tried to set Jesus free, but in the end, he knowingly gave the order for Jesus’ death.
4. The Roman soldiers spit on Jesus, beat Him, jammed a crown of thorns onto His head, and mocked Him. As they led Him to Calvary, they watched Him stumble, battered and bleeding. When they drove the nails through His hands and feet, the soldiers knew exactly what they were doing. Christ’s agony was real.
5. Jesus’ executioners didn’t know what they were doing because sin and “the god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Corinthians 4:4).
Yet, Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, because they do not know what they are doing” Luke 23-34

If they had truly understood who Jesus was and what they were doing to Him—God’s Son, their promised Messiah—do you think they would have never done such evil? The horror of such actions would have overwhelmed them. Instead, they would have fallen down before Jesus and worshiped Him. 

Apart from Christ, we are all spiritually blind—and spiritually deaf. In the rebellion of our sin, we are no different than the people in the days of Ezekiel, Jesus, and Paul, who have ears but do not hear (Ezek. 12:2; Matt. 13:13; Acts 28:27). In our sinful state, we don’t hear, see, or respond to the truth. 

Unless God opens our eyes to see Jesus and our sin, we will stay as blind and deaf as the dead, because that’s exactly what we are—dead in our trespasses and sins.

“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.” Ephesians 2:1-3 

EASTER: THE DEATH OF DEATH

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When Jesus rose again from the dead, He defeated death!

Death died when Christ rose. Easter was the death of death.

Of all events in history, there’s none more significant than the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the grave. When Jesus came to this earth, lived a perfect life, died a perfect death, and rose again from the dead, He changed everything.

This selfless act was for me, for you, for everyone.

Imagine the disappointment the disciples felt when Jesus was murdered and taken away from them. But He promised that He would rise from the dead.

The women who went to the tomb together to anoint His dead body were not expecting to see a risen Lord. But an angel told them, “Don’t be alarmed. You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead! Look, this is where they laid his body” (Mark 16:6 NLT).

Jesus changed everything. That’s the meaning of Easter and the reason for my unshakeable hope.

The resurrection of Jesus teaches us our hope goes beyond the grave.

Jesus took death on and defeated it. When Jesus came back from the dead, hope came with Him. This hope is for everyone, especially the broken.

Jesus rose in an actual body in a physical world in a tangible way.

The Bible tells us, “But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. He is the first of a great harvest of all who have died. So, you see, just as death came into the world through a man, now the resurrection from the dead has begun through another man” (1 Corinthians 15:20–21 NLT).

The resurrection of Jesus assures me:

  • I am accepted by God. Romans 4:45 says, “He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.”
  • I have all the power I need to live a Christian life. Romans 8:11 says, “But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.”
  • I will live forever in Heaven and receive a new body like His. Colossians 3:4 assures us with these words. “When Christ, who is our life, appears, you shall be like Him.”
  • I will have resurrected relationships. “Since we believe that Jesus died and was raised to life again, we also believe that when Jesus returns, God will bring back with him the believers who have died” (1 Thessalonians 4:14).
  • Article extracted from presentation by Greg Laurie, pastor of Harvest Churches California.

DO WE HAVE AN IMMORTAL SOUL?

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Modern, mainstream Christianity teaches that our bodies die, but we live on as souls. So why does the Bible teach something else entirely? Knowing what your soul is—and what happens to it after you die—is a core concept of Christianity. Join Gary Black as he explains both the biblical teaching of the soul and how that teaching became corrupted over the centuries.

“Then when death comes to a man, the mortal part, it seems dies, but the immortal part goes away unharmed and undestroyed withdrawing from death.” Plato, Phaedo 106e

Understanding the soul is not immortal is critical to understanding that eternal conscious torment is not the fate of the unrepentant.

“Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the Book of Life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.” Revelation 20:14-15

“But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.” Revelation 21:8-9

“And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” Matthew 10:28

WHO CAUSED DEATH, DISEASE, AND SUFFERING IN THIS WORLD?

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For those Christians who believe in millions of years, it is only logical that the world as we see it today with all its groaning has gone on like this for millions of years before man. This then puts the blame on God for death, disease, and suffering. But God’s Word blames our sin!

No, one can’t add millions of years into Scripture. To do so is to attack the character of God and undermine the authority of the Word of God.

When God originally created everything, it was “very good.” There was no death, disease, or suffering. But because we (in Adam) sinned against our holy God (we committed high treason against God by our outright disobedience), God judged that disobedience with death and the curse (Genesis 3:14–19; Romans 5:12).

“Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned… The good news is ”For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.” Romans 5:12, 17

It must be remembered that there was a supernatural entity, Satan, involved in deceiving Eve and Adam into disobeying God. He is a fallen angel who we are told rebelled against God because he wanted to be God.

Satan is called the “prince of the power of the air” in Ephesians 2:2. He is the “ruler of this world” in John 12:31. These titles and many more signify Satan’s capabilities. To say, for example, that Satan is the “prince of the power of the air” is to signify that in some way he rules over the world and the people in it. This is not to say that he rules the world completely; God is still sovereign. But it does mean that God, in His infinite wisdom, has allowed Satan to operate in this world within the boundaries God has set for him.

We know from Biblical prophecy that all of the O.T. prophets were told that their Messiah would eventually rule Israel (Acts 3:24), the nation God established for His purposes. Almost 2,000 Biblical prophecies are of Jesus’ return to this Earth first to rescue His Saints and pour out His wrath upon an unrepentant world. Jesus then returns to Earth with the glorified Saints to rule and reign the nations with a rod of iron for 1000 years. Satan has ruled this world for 6,000 years but now he is bound in chains for most of the thousand years. He is released at the end of the thousand years and we are told that he is still able to raise an army of rebellious people to come against Jesus and the Saints. Fire from heaven consumes them and it is at this stage God destroys the old heaven and earth. Jesus’ Millennial Kingdom is a transition period.

It is after the second resurrection and the White Throne judgement that John sees a magnificent new Jerusalem descending from a new Heaven onto a new Earth where there will be no more death, disease, pain, or suffering. It will be a restoration (Acts 3:20–21). If death, disease, and suffering have been here since God created life, then it makes no sense that there will be a restoration to a new heaven and earth with no death and suffering.

EXIT GOD, ENTER DEATH CULTURE

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Great Editorial by Don Batten in Creation magazine Vol 44, No.4. I have extracted segments for this post but get the magazine you will be blessed by the content.

God creates life; Satan works to destroy life like he did at the beginning with the first humans, Adam and Eve. Jesus said of Satan to the Scribes and Pharisees:

“You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.“ John 8:44

Should we be surprised then that when nations turn their back on God they reap a harvest of death and misery? Whenever Israel abandoned God and followed after false Gods, they ended up with death and bondage. They did so many times (see Judges and Kings) with the same result. Can countries that were based on Christian values and laws expect to avoid the same consequences if they turn their back on God? No! Of course not! Western nations like my own country Australia, America, and most of Europe have abandoned God aided by the grand lie of evolution promoted by the educational establishment that we no longer need God.

We see it in the developing culture of death in these nations:

Unrestricted abortion even up to full term

Euthanasia (voluntary assisted suicide)

Family can be whatever you want. Children do not need a father and mother committed to a lifelong marriage.

Indoctrinating children with gender-bending ideology, creating confusion, disaffection with life, and suicidal urges.

Extremist ‘deep green’ ideology identifies humans as a plague on the earth that need to be culled.

The world needs to know that there is only one answer to this world’s problems and that is Jesus.

“I am the way the truth and the life” John 14:6 and “The thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy, I came that they might have life and have it abundantly.” John 10:10

Satan’s grand lie is that God is withholding all of the good things of life from us and makes us miserable with rules and regulations:

Marriage is only for a man and a woman.

You are what God made you a male or female and there is no choice in the matter.

Life is sacred; abortion is murder and euthanasia is suicide.

Christians: our job is to make Jesus’ Good News known, that is the Great Commission.

ETERNAL LIFE OR ETERNAL DEATH YOU CHOOSE

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If God exists and He created all things, it brings incredible responsibility upon the life of every man, woman, and child. Every individual under the sun has the responsibility to not only acknowledge their Creator but to give Him thanks for this magnificent universe. Moreover, they have an obligation to order their life around their Creator’s desires rather than their own—and this is the point where the bristling starts to happen. If God exists and He is the Creator of all things, this needs to inform the whole of one’s life. One must not only acknowledge Him as Creator and give Him thanks but we must live according to His rules. Every aspect of our lives must come under total surrender to the One who is the Author of life—and the one who rejects God surely does so on the basis of their desire to reject His authority.

It is all good and fine if there is a Creator who doesn’t impose His will upon the masses of His creation. However, the Creator has already judged the whole world on one previous occasion with a worldwide flood with only eight survivors. Moreover, His Word warns us that He intends to eventually destroy this fallen world with fire but beforehand there is Jesus’ Millennial Kingdom. He will rule and reign on this earth with resurrected and transformed believers for one thousand years. Check out, http://www.millennialkingdom.net

Atheists and agnostics for that matter stand on borrowed ground. They eat and drink borrowed food. They breathe in borrowed air and ultimately—live on borrowed time. They can no more diminish God’s glory and authority than if they were to try and blot out the light of the sun by standing before it. This is why many tend to go the route of dismissal of God’s existence to conceal their hatred of God, yet in the end, it will prove just as fruitless as an open hatred of God.

“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me… I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:1,6

Remember our Creator has gone to exceptional lengths to make Himself and the condition of the Cosmos (spiritual and physical) known to mankind and to enable us to get back into a right relationship with Him. Can we ask any more of God than He sends His Son to pay the price for our rebellion against Him and then to send the Holy Spirit to indwell the believer’s spirit to enable us to live the Christian life?

“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 6:23

“If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here. I came not of my own accord, but He sent me. Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me.” John 8:42-45

At the end of all days, every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess, that Jesus Christ is Lord. There is no hope for the one who dies under the consuming wrath of God, but just as there remains no hope for those who do not believe in Christ prior to their death, there will be no lingering skepticism. There will be no doubt. There will be no unbelief. All will believe and will either go away to eternal death or eternal life. Which do you choose?